Acne Remedies - The Good, The Bad And The Plain Ugly

If dermatologists had their way, most would destroy a big chunk of the acne remedies and preparations that clog shelves of drug stores.

"I'd like to throw out 50 per cent of what's in the pharmacy as being totally worthless," said one dermatologist, a private practitioner who is also a lecturer at a high level University and medical school.

"People can say anything they want on a box. It's one misleading advertisement after another."

Good or bad, acne preparations are a best seller, representing millions of dollars of business each year. This month's issue of Drug Topics says the biggest drug store seller of all is the cold remedy. Next come pain killers, laxatives, antacids – and acne remedies and other skin preparations.

Perhaps the sales should be no surprise, because at one time or another, 95 per cent of the population has had an acne problem to some degree. Severe acne is frequent enough to cause about a third of the patient visits to clinics.

Acne is a condition that runs the gamut from superficial pimples to large cysts. It may mean as little as a blemish or two, or 20 or more. It can show up wherever there are sebaceous (oil) glands: On the face, the back, or the chest. There are guys with a perfect face, and they want to get their chest sanded, it looks so horrible.

The oil glands are located at the root of hairs, and start producing when puberty is reached, about age 12 or 13. The glands are stimulated by a male hormone, androgen, and men have the most severe cases of acne.

But women also have some levels of androgen in their bodies, and many have acne problems. Some have problems only when their androgen activity is least suppressed, just before or during the menstrual period. Others have no problem until they stop using birth control pills, which are laden with female hormones.

Many people develop acne in their teens, but for some it may crop up in their 20s. Oil gland production slowly drops off with age, but for some people acne problems may persist into the 20s and even into the 30s.

Acne is caused by blocked oil glands that allow a bacterium, Propionibacterium acnes, to multiply. For most people, the resulting infection is a superficial "whitehead" or "blackhead."

But the bacterium also lives at the root of hairs, and sometimes causes infection there; the result is a deep, severe acne that causes large blemishes and often leaves scars. 

Acne Home Remedies